


The Hydrangea Conundrum (Indefinite Hiatus)

by honeycaat



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS (Video Game), ラブライブ! 虹ヶ咲学園スクールアイドル同好会 | Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:09:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27700508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeycaat/pseuds/honeycaat
Summary: Shioriko Mifune has finally moved from the nightmare that was high school to university. She wants nothing more than a quiet life in order to pursue her studies effectively. Unfortunately, her childhood friend, Lanzhu Zhong, is already tanking her hopes, and it only gets worse. The one person Shioriko never wanted to see again, her enemy from high school: Setsuna Yuki, shows up, and her world comes falling around her.
Relationships: Mifune Shioriko/Yuuki Setsuna
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	The Hydrangea Conundrum (Indefinite Hiatus)

Three hours before the first class of a new university student’s first semester, you might expect them to be preparing, or at the very least stressing out. So how was it that Shioriko Mifune found herself onboard her best friend’s private jet still an hour away from their university?  
“Lanzhu, if we’re late, I might actually kill you,” Shioriko sighed, staring at the girl across from her.  
“Lighten up a bit! We’ve got plenty of time. Besides, it’s not like you’ll do anything on the first day.”  
“I know that you’re a second-year and all, but you can’t blame me for not taking any of your academic advice.”  
“Fair enough,” Lanzhu laughed.

Shioriko had spent the summer between high school and university visiting Lanzhu in China. There was no rhyme or reason to her vacation, other than it being just that. Regardless of the fact that a luxury car showed up at her house on the first day after school ended along with a message from Lanzhu inviting her, with everything that high school had been, what was a couple of months in China? Shioriko had known Lanzhu for forever. Even though her methods were very questionable, her intentions were mostly good. It wasn’t as if the vacation hadn’t been useful either; it had been a great place for her to forget her worries. 

Lanzhu, of course, was a whole different story. Shioriko was fairly sure that Lanzhu’s family could buy half of China and had no doubt they would if given the chance. Truthfully, she was bewildered by the fact that Lanzhu had decided to attend university in Japan when she had everything and more in China already. It wasn’t like Lanzhu liked to go out of her way either, which made the decision all the more puzzling. In the back of her mind, Shioriko knew that the only reason Lanzhu would go out of her way was if she knew she would get something worthwhile out of it. What Shioriko didn’t know was what Lanzhu was after. 

Just as Lanzhu had promised Shioriko, they had made it to the university with a nice 90-minute buffer. What Lanzhu hadn’t explained was that for some inexplicable reason, the school had a private airstrip. Not only did it have one, but it was visible from the entrance.  
“Is it even legal for a school to have something like this?” Shioriko asked as the plane landed.  
“Anything’s legal if you have money,” Lanzhu shrugged.  
Shioriko almost couldn’t believe it. She had been hoping to have a reasonable and quiet life in university, but with such an entrance, she knew whispers were going to follow them both for quite a while. Lanzhu seemed oblivious to the stares and whispers that were obvious even with the distance from the entrance of the school. Shioriko, on the other hand, thought she might die of embarrassment as she trailed behind her friend towards the school. So much for that uneventful school life. 

Even though Shioriko wanted to strangle Lanzhu sometimes, being her friend came with undeniable benefits. For example: rather than living in dorms with other people who would bother her, she would be sharing an apartment with Lanzhu. Lanzhu did spend 90% of her time there complaining about how small it was, Shioriko made it a point to remind the girl that she could be stuck in dorms. Unfortunately, today her feelings towards her childhood friend were closer to the former; it was like an out-of-body experience, watching as her plans washed away. The only good thing to come out of it was a sort of immediate fix. Since Lanzhu hadn’t taken many of the general education credits that were required for graduation, the two friends had set up their schedules to have a few common classes. Basically, even though Lanzhu was making a spectacle of them, they shared their first lesson which meant that Lanzhu would take all the attention away from Shioriko. 

As life goes, it didn’t take long for the news of Shioriko and Lanzhu’s arrival to capture much of the student body’s attention. While Shioriko was hoping it would take longer, Lanzhu was bathing in the newfound glory. Even though they decided to sit next to one another in the lecture hall, it felt as if they were in two different worlds; Lanzhu with the five-odd people around her already chatting away and exchanging contact information, and Shioriko preparing to take notes quietly like the dutiful student she was used to being. As long as nothing else went wrong, and no more attention was brought to her, the day might not turn out to be as bad as she had first guessed. But if there was anything that Shioriko’d learned in her 19 years of life, it was that things never went her way. 

From Lanzhu’s charisma to typical first-day icebreakers, Shioriko couldn’t get even a moment of silence. By the time the three-hour lesson was over, she felt like going back to the apartment and sleeping for six years. Unfortunately, she only had about an hour between that lesson and her next, and if she wanted to survive, food was definitely a better idea. Though she had managed to ditch Lanzhu in favour of food, she was hyper-aware of the students that watched her like a hawk. She heard the way their eyes followed her through the halls and watched as they leaned towards each other to comment. Shioriko felt paranoid; how could she focus on her own life when everyone else was as well? She hoped sometime in this first week of classes Lanzhu would pull some outrageous stunt and redirect the rest of the attention to herself, as she always ended up doing. 

Despite the unwanted attention, Shioriko was more than happy to eat. After spending the past few months in China, it had been a bit since she’d had real Japanese food. It was a small remembrance of comfort in a sea of anxiety and exhaustion. While she didn’t want to spend any more time in the cafeteria than she already had, Shioriko had at least another half-hour before her next lecture. Ultimately, she decided to take her food and walk in the direction of the lecture hall. Shioriko wasn’t a person prone to getting lost, but it was much more likely to find a more secluded place to hide out and avoid other people. She found that the campus was much bigger than she had originally guessed; she still thought it was no place to have an airstrip, but it made a little more sense. It was also quite pretty. Not only was the architecture modern and sleek, but there was an abundance of trees, flowers, and other plants all around. Shioriko found that it was easy to get lost in the atmosphere around her, and the time passed quickly.

With higher hopes of a quiet lesson, Shioriko entered the lecture hall. Luckily, only one or two of the already present students even spared her a glance, and she was feeling less stressed already. Choosing her normal seat towards the front of the room and close to the door, she reassured herself that if it was needed, she had her quick escape. Surely, Shioriko would be fine though. There were maybe three things that would make her bolt, and it was practically impossible for any of those things to happen. Or so she thought. 

Shioriko felt her world slowly crumbling around her as she watched the one person that shouldn’t have ever been able to walk through the door do just that. Shioriko had painstakingly chosen this school half-way across Japan from her hometown precisely to avoid this exact situation. In other words: Setsuna Yuki should not be standing in the doorway, laughing with her friends without a care in the world.


End file.
